Track Work Out Thursday

I am really attempting to train correctly for whatever fall marathon I decide to grace with my presence, so that means speed work once a week!

Thursday night I was heading to the track - it was clear and gorgeous even though the fine weathermen had forecasted a good chance of storms all afternoon. I was at an intersection where I could turn right for the track or left for the gym and I saw it - lightening!

I was so mad, but then realized I had forgotten my Garmin anyway. It's slightly difficult to do mile repeats at a certain pace without a watch, so off to the gym I went.

I despise the treadmill. I don't think it really likes me either. But we attempted to make up, and I went for it.

My workout:

1 mile warm up

3 x 1600 (mile) at 8:03 pace with 800 (half mile) recovery in between

1 mile cool down

I did my warm up at 9:00 pace then my first mile repeat at 8:00. This is when I realized I just did a 5k at a 7:30 pace, so what kind of speed work out is this? I tried to stick to the plan.

But I got bored.

I ended up doing the second mile repeat around 7:50 and the third just under 7:30. The cool down was super boring for me so I finished the last half mile at a 6:30 pace. It wasn't much of a cool down, but at least I finished sooner than I would have if I had followed the plan.  It wasn't an easy work out, but not really the type of work out I had hoped for it to be either. But at least I did it!

 

Sorry for the horribly blurry pic, that is what happens when I take a picture with my phone after being on a treadmill. And I still feel like I am on the treadmill. I was happy with completing 6 miles, although despite this photographic evidence, it took me longer than 35 seconds. I think it was around 51 minutes in reality.

This morning I woke up extremely dizzy so I decided to do my run tomorrow morning instead. I did make it to barbell class this morning. Six. Minutes. Lunges. My lower half might fall off at some point during the day today!

Enjoy your long Memorial Day weekend!

Decisons, Decisions, Decisions

My running buddy Ben is back - and we were finally able to coordinate our schedules for a run today. It was about 60 degrees warmer today than the last time we ran together and we dodged geese with babies instead of dodging ice patches and snow covered sidewalks.

I created a training plan with Smart Coach from Runner's World and am trying my best to follow it. Although sometimes I declare myself smarter than Smart Coach and I do want I want! :)  For instance today was an easy run day and it told me my pace should be 10:06 for 4 miles. That is entirely too slow for me for that distance. So I opted for 8:50ish pace. Sometimes we were closer to 8:10 and once or twice we hit 9:00. We ran a route from work that I haven't done in a while and we ended up missing our turn and creating a new route. It was a nice route and I wouldn't mind doing it again - if we can remember how we got there in the first place!

The other problem with this plan is I am not exactly sure what I am training for yet. Hopefully a fall marathon will be nailed down in the next few weeks. I'm still taking suggestions...

I was going to do a duathlon this weekend, but we are celebrating my friend's birthday the night before and I'm not sure I want to commit to a 5:00 a.m. morning the day after a birthday celebration. Maybe I'll create my own. I'm thinking the next tri will be in July, but maybe a little sooner. Too many decisions to make!

Weekend Recap

We have finally had several days in a row of gorgeous weather and I'm getting in as much Vitamin D as possible - with proper sunscreen of course!

Employee Health and Fitness week was this week at work. All week there were activities such as lawn bowling, kickball, volleyball, putt putt, a team triathlon and more! The week concludes with the Eye Run - the annual 5K that benefits my company's foundation OneSight - and a party on the piazza (not a pizza party as many people misunderstood!)

It was mid 70's, sunny and blue sky on Friday - perfect day for a run and party. I really dislike 5Ks while I am running them and I always feel a lot of pressure with this one as both my running and work worlds collide. There were also some awkward emails floating around the department too that made me feel a lot more pressure this year as well. 

Thankfully I had a pretty decent race and ended up 2nd woman, 1st in age group and 11th overall. 

Friday night concluded with a Mexican dinner outside and after the [insert your own adjective here] week I had a margarita was in order! I love being able to dine al fresco!

Saturday morning I went for a short 6 mile run nice and early so I would have time to get all gussied up for my friend Mandy's bridal shower later that morning. The shower was at her friend's lake house and it was beautiful. The weather could not have been more perfect.

Marc and I just got back home from what he deemed "the best bike ride ever". I would like to think it was because of his awesome company, but we heard at least a half dozen Tom Turkeys gobbling up a storm (literally since they were gobbling at the the thunder of the storm that chased us back home). It was pretty neat except for him slamming on his brakes right in front of me almost causing me to wreck. We only saw one turkey, but we heard at least 6 along a half mile stretch. We only did 20 miles...hard to believe in less than 3 months we'll be doing (almost) 4 times that distance two days in a row!

Come Visit Me...

I'm over here today with my first guest post ever! Take a look and hang out for a while with Sarah (Floyd's mom). She has an amazing blog with great crafts, recipes and much more!

Fun With Numbers

Ames, this one is for you!

My gym offers a Fit Point test free as often as you want to take it. I like free things - so I made an appointment for this evening and went for it!

First I sat down with the trainer and talked about my goals - mainly qualifying for Boston and improving my triathlon times and distance.

Then I took a series of tests - cardiovascular (VO2 max), strength, flexibility and body composition.

They give you a graphical print out that shows where you rank. I'm taking a deeeeeeep breath then posting my numbers in hopes it will help hold me accountable to improving them. However, I am skipping over weight as I don't think that is really one of the important numbers here.

Max VO2 = 35.1 (moderate) Ideally I want to get to Very good which is 43-46

Bicep Strength = 39 (average) Ideally I want to get to Excellent which is above 73

Sit and Reach = 8.9 (Poor) Embarrassing, but not surprising. My goal is to hit average

Body Composition = 22.9 Ideally I want to get to 19

Overall Fitness = 64 (Good) My goal is to hit Excellent which is 81-100

I like that this is personal to my goals. If I just wanted to be an average healthy, fit person, my goals and ideal numbers would be different. 

My favorite part of the test results, most likely due to my obsession love of the Biggest Loser is that it tells you your Body Age. Mine is 30. That made me laugh. It also gives you your Obtainable Age which is 21 for me.  Hopefully in a few months time I'll be 21 again!

Double Digits

Today was my first long run since the marathon. With the possibility of a sooner than later marathon it was necessary to get a longish run in. So, 10 miles it was - in the middle of a rainy Saturday afternoon. I typically don't like running in the afternoon, but it felt amazing today. And I managed to barely get rained on. That's quite a feat these days in the Midwest.

I realized this week I add "ish" to quite a few words. I think this makes me right 100% of the time. I like that.

On my run I realized it was the first run I had really pushed myself on in quite some time. It was the first time I felt like I was running "fast" - with the exception of the run part of the tri, but honestly I couldn't feel my legs for half of that to really know if it felt fast or not. I was reminded why I like running by myself sometimes. Although I do love my running buddies too. There must be a balance somewhere...

I ran from my place, to the lake, around the lake twice, a short circle through my friend's neighborhood, then back home and around my complex twice to hit 10 miles. The humidity is not as high as it was earlier this week, and thankfully the temp is not almost 90 either, but it was pretty warm and I would not be surprised if my face is still red 2 hours from now.

Tomorrow I have a group fitness class marathon planned. Then a nap.

Happy Heart

This brings me great happiness...

and sadness that the GOTR spring 2011 season is over.